Missing Mini Roundabouts

Will you please explain HERE’s policy for including and excluding roundabouts from user submitted Map Creator edits.

I have added numerous mini roundabouts in Map Creator and they have all been rejected by HERE review staff. Most of the mini roundabouts are shown on HERE satellite images and many were constructed 10+ years ago.

Thank you.

Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your post. It is also very timely, as we have just changed our specifications regarding mini roundabouts. Previously the roundabout had to be a certain diameter and size to be deemed navigationally significant and included in our database and hence the rejection in the Map Creator moderation process. We are now accepting all of these mini round about edits and will be including them in our database and map platforms based on the feedback we’ve received from users. I apologise for your rejections in the past and in light of this change I realise your previous edits have been lost but please do now continue to add in mini roundabouts going forward. This is a really useful discussion for all so I’ll pin it to the top of the forum and also include in our next user newsletter, thanks again Stephen!

To add to this question, there are sometimes double mini-roundabouts which join on to each other. I encountered a couple when driving recently that were treated as a single roundabout (which gave quite confusing directions) and others that were just marked as a junction. Should these be edited as 2 separate roundabouts linked together? They are likely to be confusing which ever way they are done as far as the voice navigation goes, but I feel personally if they are shown as they are on the map route we’ll at least know it’s a double roundabout coming up from the image.

Hi Claire,
This is good news and in my opinion the inclusion of mini roundabouts will improve road safety. By ignoring the construction of mini roundabouts HERE voice directions could give instructions that were at best confusing or even impossible due to changed road layouts and priorities.
Will you please confirm and publicise the process for adding roundabouts in HERE Map Creator and confirm that voice instructions are updated when roundabouts of any size are added to your map database.
I have added some mini roundabout edits this morning including some double roundabouts as mentioned by Mike and will see how the edits progress.

Hi Steve and Mike, thanks again both for raising and being active in this discussion.
Mike – you are correct and these should be digitised and edited as 2 separate roundabouts – I’ll attach some screenshots to the discussion when I have some good examples to share. As far as the voice instructions go, we can advise the car and sat nav manufacturers on this but ultimately, it is their interpretation and voice commands that will be heard – as we know they differ from each system to the next. Voice instructions are down to the manufacturer, and not us, which is a common misconception.
Thanks again for your edits both! And don’t hesitate to continue the discussion and send any other feedback to us regarding these situations.

Hi Claire, I do understand that manufacturers are responsible for the voice instructions, the reason I said “HERE voice directions” was because I was personally using the HERE Android App, sorry for the confusion.

As far as examples go, here’s a few I encountered in Cornwall…

50.099121, -5.278048
50.409208, -5.073986
50.341705, -5.111169

Hi Mike,
No problem at all, thanks for clarifying and sending me those examples, that’s great. I shall pass those on now to my colleague who is in charge of advising on the voice instructions on our map navigation.
The process could take some time, but I will post back on the discussion when I have an update.
Many thanks!

Hi Claire,

Will you please confirm how HERE intends to add the historic mini roundabouts that it has previously deemed navigationally insignificant to its database following its change of policy.

I assume that HERE receives data about new roads, changes to road layouts etc from various professional mapping organisations like the Ordnance Survey rather than having bodies on the ground.. Will the previously excluded mini roundabouts be added from data supplied by these sources or from Map Creator edits supplied by contributors? I have added some Map Creator mini roundabout edits but don’t want to create unnecessary further edits if HERE is going to add these missing roundabouts from other sources. Do you have a timescale for the addition of these roundabouts to your database?

I wasn’t aware that the voice commands were down to individual manufacturers. The manufacturer voice commands can only be as accurate as the underlying data supplied by HERE. It was the HERE policy exclusion of min roundabouts that caused the confusing voice commands rather than any interpretation by the manufacturer in my earlier comment.

I have further examples of double roundabouts to those that Mike posted if you need them. They are also in Cornwall.

Claire
I have added a double mini roundabout in milton keynes, this would be a good example for you to edit and screenshot to show it. unfortunately as locked roads connect only you can fully edit it.
https://mapcreator.here.com/mapcreator/51.9985664411127,-0.7158190881176267,20,0,0

Hi Steven,
It’s a good question…
Firstly, we do, and have always had field vehicles on the ground collecting our data and verifying our data constantly throughout the year. In my previous role to looking after Map Creator, I myself was a Geographic Field Analyst who traveled around in our field vehicles checking our database. You may see some of our vehicles driving around – I’ve attached a picture to show you what our new fleet vehicles look like.
At the moment, we will begin by adding them on the more major roads – A and B roads, with a view to completing coverage on all roads from our own sources – e.g. Our own data collected or received from our partnerships with local councils and authorities or indeed our partnership with such organisations as the OS which you mention – in around a years time from now.
As a result, please be aware that there may be an extended time in which your edits for these are moderated, particularly on ‘lower’ road types in Map Creator i.e. Residential roads, depending on the integration timeline and new process for this feature.
I’ve raised the voice issue again and hopefully we can resolve this as we start to add these in.
Thanks again for your edits, feedback and comments here in the discussion.

Apologies I seem to be having some issues with picture upload at the moment. It should be attached here now.

HERE-True-Car

Hi Claire,

Some of the mini roundabouts I have added appear to have been accepted by HERE moderators as the protected roads that ran through the middle of the mini roundabout have been removed. The protection road status on the road sections either side of the mini roundabout and on the sections of the mini roundabout itself have not been reinstated. I could now remove these sections of the road and roundabout. Is this HERE policy until the mini roundabout has been verified by other sources or an editing oversight by the moderator?

An example is the mini roundabout at the junction of Hill Lane and Wilton Road in Southampton which post code SO15 5JA shows. I can provide other examples if required.

Where different road types meet at the roundabout which road type should be assigned to the roundabout? If local access and residential roads meet I have made the whole roundabout local access.

Will the add roundabout utility be improved to make it easier to keep a roundabout ‘circular’ so the roundabout doesn’t fragment into so many unnecessary small segments? I accept that segments are needed between the road junctions but most roundabouts including large roundabouts added by HERE have more segments than the road junctions require. The Hill Lane / Wilton Road roundabout I referred to above above has 5 segments rather than the 3 segments required by the 3 road junctions. Future editing will be much easier if the number of segments is kept to a minimum.

Steve

your lucky at least one of your edits been accepted, i had one Here Staff that rejected over 20 of mine saying “Request does not meet our Map Specifications for Inclusion” despite mini roundabouts now being allowed. I have sent Claire the list but is frustrating you make the effort to make edits and someone rejects them with no legitimate reason given.

Mini roundabout edits are still being rejected by HERE moderators.
My edits to add the mini roundabout at the junction of Malmsbury Road, St James Road and Raymond Road Southampton disappeared overnight. I have added the roundabout again this morning. I cannot find the ‘Report a Map Problem’ form that I raised to have the protected roads removed from this roundabout.
Where roundabouts have protected roads running through them I complete a ‘Report a Map Problem’ form. Is this the correct way to get protected roads removed from the middle of roundabouts?
Attached screen shots were taken at about 07:30 am 01/12/2017.

Screenshot-629 Screenshot-628 Screenshot-627

all you can do is send report in asking locked roads to be joined to roundabouts, we are all the same in having to report them and here staff fix them.
i have ones i reported 6 months ago and still not done, its a long slow process
send claire an email listing all the roundabouts you need fixed.